In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

The conventional view of the Biden family finances we've had from the quasi-investigative right-wing press, along with limited information from the Comer committee, has been that Hunter is the business mind and the bagman who collects payments from assorted foreign businessmen, gangsters, and wannabes and funnels them into a general Biden family fund that supports somewhere between nine and 12 parasitic family members with assorted other cronies and retainers. It's alleged that part of the scheme is "10% to the big guy", based on a cryptic reference in an e-mail on the Hunter laptop. In part, this is also a view that Hunter himself promotes among some in the family, including his uncle James and daugther Naomi, also based on e-mails in the laptop. But let's take a 30,000-foot look at Hunter's actual career. Every indication is that he never had much business or financial acumen, and in fact he himself led a parasitic lifestyle based on his position as son...

On Saturday I said my kabuki alarm has been going off since the start of the elaborate cat-and-mouse between the Comer committee and FBI Director Wray over an FD-1023 form that may contain allegations of bribery against Joe Biden when he was vice president. This was all going to be settled when Wray brought the FD-1023 in question over to the Capitol yesterday to show it to Chairman Comer and Ranking Member Raskin in person -- except, of course, it wasn't. According to NBC: House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced Monday that his panel will start proceedings to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress, a move the agency called "unwarranted." The FBI briefed Comer and Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., on Capitol Hill for more than an hour Monday and offered them the chance to review a document that purportedly describes an allegation that Joe Biden accepted a bribe as vice president. Speaking to reporte...

Kevin Morris, a Hollywood B-lister if ever there was one and reputed Hunter Biden sugar-bro, is back in the news , more or less: A top House Republican is looking into the "suspicious" transfer of Hunter Biden’s stake in a Chinese government-linked investment firm to his "sugar brother" Hollywood lawyer who helped pay off millions of dollars of his back taxes. Kevin Morris, a close Hunter Biden confidante [sic], appears to be the current owner of Skaneateles, an LLC started by the younger Biden through which he held his 10% share in Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company, or BHR, according to the company's business records. The question I've had all along has been the relatively piddling amounts involved in all of Hunter's transactions, in comparison, say, to Elizabeth Holmes, whose non-existent net worth was as much as $4.5 billion, or Sam Bankman-Fried, who is estimated to have bilked investors of about $8 bilion...

In the wake of President Biden's fall at the Air Force Academy and his subsequent near-accident on Marine One, nobody has mentioned Jimmy Carter's September 16, 1979 collapse during a cross-country race near Camp David. The incident occurred just 200 yards past the entrance to Camp David as Carter neared the top of the second major hill on the course. Between 800 and 900 runners were participating in the event. Lt. Col. Paul Kramer of Washington, who was jogging close behind Carter, told United Press International he saw "his legs collapse. He looked in pretty bad shape. His head was down, and he just looked lousy." Ther story had more details: Carter, wobbly and moaning, was kept from collapsing by security men who held him erect as he staggered to the top of a long hill in the fourth mile of the Catoctin Mountains race. Colman McCarthy, a Washington Post reporter who was running in pace with Carter, described the president as "ashen" and in dis...

Over the past month, there's been a cat-and-mouse game between congressional Republicans and FBI Director Wray over a purported FBI FD-1023 form that may contain allegations of bribery against Joe Biden when he was vice president. My kabuki alarm had been going off over this from the start. Here was the status as of May 3 : Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member and long-time whistleblower advocate Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today are demanding the FBI produce an unclassified record alleging a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national. The document, an FBI-generated FD-1023 form, allegedly details an arrangement involving an exchange of money for policy decisions. Comer issued a subpoena today following legally protected disclosures to Grassley’s office. Director Wray slow-walked a passive-aggressive reply on May 10: FBI Director Christopher Wray declined...

There's a notable overall pattern here: a dog that wasn't supposed to bark is actually barking, at least a little bit. A few Major League Baseball pitchers, including two on the Dodgers team itself, have objected to the Dodgers' plan to give a hero award to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. This comes in a context, whereby as early as last January, well before l'affaire Bud Light, some National Hockey League players refused to wear Pride jerseys for their respective teams' Pride nights. The most recent example came on March 7, when Minnesota Wild players chose to not wear special Pride Night jerseys that had been designed. According to the link, though, this is actually a dastardly Russian plot. According to a report from The Athletic, there is a connection to Russia in all of this. On March 10, The Athletic published a report titled "The NHL's Russia-Pride jersey problem, explained: Why Wild became latest to scrap plans." The rep...

Gee, d'ya think? In this morning's New York Post , Target’s decision to move some of its LGBT pride apparel in some of its locations made national headlines, and it may have lost control of its own narrative in the process, a top consumer researcher says. Notice how gingerly the Post is covering this story. As I noted a week ago, Target's own corporate flack Erik Castaneda told Reuters that products are being withdrawn at all locations, not just in some southern states. The products Target is withdrawing are being removed from all its U.S. stores and from its website, Castaneda said. And as I noted yesterday, a YouTuber went undercover , representing himself as someone who wanted to buy a "tuck friendly" swimsuit, and was able to speak with a manager who explained these were "out of stock". Clearly Target is doing this very quietly, but as I noted in yesterday's post, it appeared to be actively dumping its Pride products even before th...